This disclosure relates in general to delivery of content, and in particular, to optimizing value of content items delivered by an online system for a content provider.
An online system receives content items from content providers and distributes them to users of the online system. The online system provides value to the content providers by distributing the content items to the users. Content providers provide guidance indicating how the online system should distribute the content items. For example, the content provider may provide information describing the demographics of users to target for a content item or specify a rate at which content items should be distributed.
The overall value to the content provider of distribution of content items to users by the online system may depend on various factors. For example, the value of distribution of content items to the content provider may depend on the types of user interactions performed by the users responsive to receiving the content items. The online system determines which content items to provide to a user or rate of delivery of a content item based on whether users might perform the user interactions, but this fails to consider the various factors that affect the value provided to the content provider associated with those user interactions. Therefore, conventional systems often fail to maximize the value provided to the content providers by distributing the content items.